Never Wake A Sleeping Lioness
by SerialStoryLover
Summary: After doing a report on the State of the Union, the gang find themselves stuck in the airport as the snow storm hits D.C. and nobody wants to wake Mac up. Hints of will/mac. Fluffiness abound, to be sure.
1. Chapter 1

**_Never Wake A Sleeping Lioness._**

**_So, I've taken a leaf from Aaron Sorkin's book and have found a real news story to "excuse" my need to write fluff. This is set in early 2011 – so sometime between the Giffords shooting and the fifth episode "Amen"._**

**_The gang are travelling back from D.C. after a couple of days doing special report for the state of the union. The day after also happened to be the crazy, crazy snow storm, so our heroes are stuck in the airport. It's slightly out-of-sync with real time, but I'm still rather pleased with myself investigative skills._**

**_ALSO! Has anyone seen the RNC's slogan? "We Can Do Better"?! I saw a photo and just went NO! THAT'S MAC'S PHRASE!_**

**_*coughs* Er, yeah. I'm very tired._**

* * *

How long had they all been here? There was a mini plane-traffic jam as the airport ground staff tried to keep the runway as clear as they could for as long as they could before the seemingly inevitable happened and they would stop being able to out-work the snow, and the airport would close. No one was particularly looking forward to it.

It was now coming on close to four in the morning, and the News Night crew had barely slept since the previous Friday night due to their extensive preparations for the State of the Union Special coverage. They had been in D.C. since Monday afternoon, and though they came from _The_ City that Never Sleeps, as it turned out the political centre of America had a similar policy – although it revolved less around drinking cosmos and more around killing yourself with over-work.

Worst off in all of this had been Mackenzie. She had had a fifth of the sleep that everyone else had, not only trying coordinate the rundown and each groups' area of investigation, but also dealing with the less-than-happy Washington team who had been benched, the weasels on the hill who wanted different things every five minutes, the insanity of the White House Press Office, all whilst suffering from severe sleep deprivation.

She was currently passed out on three of the airport lounge seats; her whole crew around her in effectual silence for fear of waking her up again. Jim had walked in earlier and dropped a can of coke which clunked and spewed out a fountain of fizzy juice. She had flown off the handle so quickly that anyone who had moved since had gained looks of deep admiration from their colleagues for managing to do so without rousing Mac from her slumber.

Even though they were in a more secluded part of the airport (since they were not taking a commercial flight), spare seats were virtually non-existent. Whenever a bystander would walk past and eye-up one of the seats Mac was taking on, her team transformed into a human hyena pack and glared at them threateningly until the person took the hint and moved on.

It was not like they were angry with Mac, though. On the contrary, they were all very proud of the work their boss had put in these last few days. Surrounded by the other news outlets who had all crammed into D.C. for the big event, News Night had been given a fair amount of stick, and had to deal with a few sniggers and loud jokes about being the "media elite". But Mac had led by example, and they had all taken heart from her.

Almost intuitively everyone looked up, as though they could smell the scent of a potential threat to Mac; and looking around they spotted a tried looking Will making his way towards them.

He had been gone for the best part of two hours having met an old friend on their way to the gate, and figuring that they wouldn't be going anywhere for a while, had stopped for a drink in the lounge and a catch-up.

Almost before he was close enough to actually see the staffers properly, almost everyone – with the exception of Charlie, who was looking thoroughly amused at the whole thing – had pressed a finger to their lips and pointed in Mac's direction, looking pleadingly at Will to understand.

From his point of view, however, Will could not see the sleeping form of Mac lying across the seats facing away from him, and so looked at his team, bewildered, until he was only feet away and could finally comprehend the source of their anxiety.

Gazing at Mac for a moment, he melted ever so slightly. She had always looked so sweet and peaceful when she was sleeping; the complete opposite of the energetic and adrenaline-fuelled Mackenzie that everyone saw when she was at work. Unconsciously he smiled, turning back to the others and putting up a hand to reassure them that he understood. There was a collective sigh of relief as everyone's shoulders relaxed – except that there wasn't actually a sigh of relief; it was more akin to having walked into a silent movie.

Looking around, Will noted that there were no seats left at all. Greedy Mackenzie had an extra two to herself. Tamara and Kendra were sitting on the floor with Neal, leaning back against the chairs in the spaces between peoples legs. He wasn't sure if he sat on the floor he would ever be able to get up again – after Mackenzie, he was next on the medal table for who had had the least sleep.

Steeling himself, he glanced back over to Mac. They would be talking about this for a while he suspected; but he walked quietly over, and reached out to put an hand under each of her shoulders – there was a collective gasp of horror from behind him, and he could not help but turn around, amused to see the expressions on his team's faces. They were of abject horror. Jim looked as though Will was about to kill his puppy.

He shook his head, laughing silently to himself and turned back to the task at hand. Gently firming his grip around her shoulders, and putting one hand under her neck, he slowly lifted up Mac's shoulders and head and as soon as there was room, swiftly sat down on the chair they had been occupying and laid her gently back down so that her head was resting on his thigh.

It seemed that everyone had been holding their breath, waiting for the inevitable explosion… but it never came. A split second after Will had set her back down she had frowned, wriggled slightly, and let out a slight moan…before relaxing again and to everyone's disbelief, snuggling into Will's leg.

Will let his head fall back and shut his eyes, his body grateful for the seat, and, slightly confusingly, for the warm weight of Mac's head in his lap. He kept the arm that had lifted her shoulders draped across her so that if she start to wake up, he'd be able to soothe her back to sleep.

He opened his eyes again and was met with the stunned disbelief of the staffers. He had moved her – physically moved her! Yet when they so much as breathed too loudly she was in danger of waking up!

Tentatively, still a bit unsure of how far Will's miraculous talents would stretch, Jim spoke up (in a whisper), "That is a _gift_, man." The others fervently nodded their agreement, some still looking slightly apprehensive but all of them looking impressed.

Jim had been with Mackenzie in a few similar situations when they were out in the Middle East, and depending on her state of exhaustion, she could be the worst grouch he'd ever met. Will nodded smugly, glancing down at the sleeping woman and unconsciously - and luckily not within the other's line of sight – gently stroked the underside of her elbow. She snuggled in again, letting out a small breath.

Charlie was sitting across from Will supposedly buried in a book, but was in actual fact grinning from ear to ear. When would those two just get it together?

* * *

**_This story has sprouted off ideas for two other stories...so forgive me if I start to lose track. I'll try and focus on my multi-chapter one before doing more of these. But if I get stuck again, I'll just fill the time doing these :)_**


	2. Chapter 2

Five o'clock. Five o'clock in the morning! Most of the staffers had dozed off or were zoned out in their own little world as they all waited for salvation. If it didn't come soon, there was no way that they were getting home for a good while. The snow outside hadn't stopped and the multitude of red "cancellations" on the departures board was increasing about every ten minutes. Will could was sitting, almost hypnotised by the cascade of white which was billowing past the large glass windows, barely visible but as shadows in the night.

This hypnotic sensation was spreading to his actions as well. He was running his thumb from one said of Mac's elbow to the other and then back again…he might have been doing it for half an hour. He wasn't really sure either of how long he had been doing it for, or why he was doing it at all. Maybe it was just a way to make sure he didn't go mad from the eerily transfixing snowfall; or maybe just mad from boredom? It relaxed him anyway.

The airport was extremely quite now. Most people had run out of energy due to the sheer time that they had been waiting for a flight; a lot of people had given up and gone to find a hotel. Everyone else was just trying to get some sleep.

"You look very thoughtful." At last a soft murmur rescued him from the hypnosis, and he looked around the others for the speaker, until a slight twist in his lap made him look downwards at a very sleepy-looking (and uncomfortably adorable looking) Mackenzie. She was squinting up at him as her eyes adjusted to the light, and her warm arm crossed over the one belonging to him that was draped across her torso as she reached up to get the sleep out of her eyes.

"There's not much else to do around here."

"Mmm," she felt extremely comfortable, and was very tempted to just go back to sleep. Letting her eyes flicker shut for a few seconds more, they opened again as Will brushed a hair across her forehead from where she had been sleeping. He didn't seem to realise that he was still soothingly stroking her elbow, and she didn't really want to mention it in case he stopped. It was a nice feeling.

She twisted her head around so that she could check on the others. Most seemed to be asleep, or at least dozing. At the far end Neal was playing with something on his iPad, and Tess seemed to be curled up with a book; but Maggie was slumped next to Jim, her head on her shoulder, snoozing. Jim himself was lying as far back as he could, his head hanging over the top of the seat, mouth hanging open. Mac smiled to herself.

"It's funny to see them all so quiet." She whispered.

"Yeah." Will breathed, looking up and following her gaze. He smiled, "They've earned it."

"They did good." She agreed, a shadow of pride now in her eyes as she lingered on Jim in particular.

"You trained them well." Mac turned back to Will, eyes crinkled in a smile as she accepted the compliment. But the warmth grew there as she lifted her free arm to rest on top of his and gave it a gentle squeeze. "No, _we_ did Billy. You've given them someone to look up to. They wouldn't be half as good if they didn't have respect the person they were working for."

He smiled back.

The two of them fell into a comfortable silence and Mac let her eyes drift shut again as Will stared into space, feeling happier than he had all day. And to be perfectly honest, he was slightly worried about why.

This just felt like old times. Mac snuggled up on his lap while they watched TV before bed, just having her close or holding her hand because he liked to know that she was there.

Luckily, before he had a chance to get too wrapped up in his old memories, a young, nervous looking man in a pilot's epaulettes tapped him on the shoulder.

"Mr McAvoy?" He asked.

"That's me."

"Air traffic control has ordered us to get ready, sir. They're going to try and get us out before they shut it down. And the storm is apparently heading for New York, so…"

Sighing, part of him very much opposed to changing the comfortable position he was in, he looked back down at Mac. She had an understanding, wistful look on her face too. She waited until she was sure he had seen it, sure he had gotten the message, and then nodded to him. Damn.

"Well we'd better get going then, hadn't we?"

"Yes sir" the young man responded. And walked away back to the small gate they would need to go through to get to the charter jet.

Smiling bravely, Mac pushed herself up into to a sitting position, but was prevented from moving further by the arm Will still had around her middle.

She shut her eyes, torn between not wanting him to take this any further and another part of her screaming for him to just pull her properly into his arms.

Will waited for her to move, and when she didn't he rested his forehead on the back of her head, squeezing her tightly to him, pleased when she leaned back into his embrace. Her hair smelled of a rosey shampoo that he could remember her liking from years ago…she still used it.

He wasn't sure but he thought he might have heard her murmur "I'm sorry."

Deciding he didn't whether or not she had said anything, he pressed a light kiss to her hair, and finally withdrew his arm. It still managed to make her feel as though electricity had just been injected into her veins. As they rose to wake their staffers, she shot him a brilliant smile that he knew she only wore for him – always had and it seemed, always would.

They swiftly moved down the row of sleepy journalists and told them they were leaving as soon as possible.

Mac was the first one to Charlie. Putting a hand on his shoulder, she gently shook him awake.

"Hey there. We're to make a run for it." She told him warmly. As he realised it was her, taking in her face which was more rested than he had seen it in days, he placed a hand over the one she had on his shoulder and smiled knowingly at her. She was taken aback at this.

"Okay." He said, beaming. Confused, she straightened up and turned to wake Martin. He was groggy, and as she tried to tell him that they needed to go she felt a sharp tap on her shoulder. Looking around she saw Charlie ready to move off. She looked at him expectantly.

"Hope you had a good sleep." He said knowingly, and with a wink and a slight spring in his step, he turned away from her and headed to the gangway.

Frozen for a moment as she realised what he meant, she couldn't help but grin to herself as she turned back to Martin.

Annoyingly I feel like this is a bit of an abrupt ending, but the only other ending I have involves Wade, and I'm too happy with will/mac here so I'm just going to leave it because I think I'm done with this one.

* * *

**_Yes. He smelt roses in her hair. I actually went there. _**

**_NB: Unbelievably I don't actually think I've written the verb to smell in it's past participle. Ever. My mind has now been blown because I'm not sure whether I should be using "smelt" or "smelled". Random._ **


End file.
